Evaluation activity 4

Imovie Software:-

Aran had used the Imovie software to produce the credits for our trailer. We decided to do this very late after we produced our final draft. We felt something was missing to make our trailer go from the draft to the final product. This was when we decided to make credits and decided to do this on Imovie as Aran had experience with this piece of software even though we used movie maker during our editing. I also had past experience with both software and could say that they were both very similar but Imovie was the best for producing credits. Thus Aran produced the credits which we then incorporated in our trailer on movie maker and realised that this was what we were missing. I felt the production of credits on Imovie was much less time consuming and much more professional. Moreover the font that we were using throughout the trailer in movie maker could be found in Imovie which was one of our main fears at the time. Both movie maker and Imovie are pre-installed programmes with very similar specifications.
                             

Here is a screenshot of Aran working on the credits using the Imovie software on his Imac. He then sent it to Muhammed who put it on the trailer.

Samsung Video Camera:-

We had a wide range of video cameras to choose from and surprisingly found out that Muhammeds video camera was the best. We tested 4 cameras and we had a wide range of criteria where the Samsung fulfilled the majority of them. We also chose this because we identified how sooth trailers are and this camera shaked the least which is what we wanted the most. Compared to a Sony camcorder that we had, the video quality was slightly worse for the Samsung but the Sony shakes significantly more and thus didn't meet our most important criteria.

    Due to the camera not shaking very much, it performed extortionately during the fast paced shots in which we had a lot of. It also was very smooth during the match on action shots that we had taken whilst Aran was boxing. When looking back at these shots, we concluded that this piece of equipment was perfect for us and that we had made the right decision when choosing the camera as we noticed that it was the smoothest with one of the best resolutions.

    One problem we faced was with lighting where the flash of our camera didn't make much of a difference. The way in which we overcame this was deciding what times we should go to our locations so we didn't have to worry about the lighting. We decided to leave for our running track early in the morning and this gave us sufficient time to film in our location without worrying about lighting.

   Overall, I felt as if we chose the best possible camera which supported our needs. It was light and easily manoeuvrable to to help with the tricky camera angles.

                                           

Here is a camera shot of the type of camera that we had used. It is very different to a contemporary camera used in most trailers but I felt as if it had done the job as well.

Windows Live Movie Maker:-

This was predominantly the software that we used for the majority of the editing for our trailer. We used this software for editing last year and thus made it much easier to us it this year. Also it helped us be more time efficient as we knew exactly what we were doing in regards to this software thanks to our added experience from last year.

   The programme itself was fantastically simple to use as well as the inclusion of exceptional features as well. All of this combined makes it much easier for to do our editing process and it was also very easy to bring all of our shots together along with using our effects such as our fades. The simplicity along with the fact that it done everything we needed made it very time efficient and allowed us to make a number of drafts to pick from and it also helped re editing it without any problem.

    Overall, I believe that the use of this programme was perfect for our needs. Prior to the editing stage, we were given negative feedback in regards to using such a simple editing tool but after we completed a our editing, these same critics gave us praise and this just shows that if you are good at a specific piece of software, you can fully utilise it which is what we had done.

                                            

Here is a screenshot of us using this windows movie maker tool. As you can see, this was during the early stages of our editing where we only incorporated the sound and the opening 3 shots. That being said, it only took us half a day to create a first draft which shows its ease of use. from this first draft, we only made slight adjustments which also shows how successful our research and planning stage was and how influential the storyboard was as we followed it very closely which was one thing that we did differently to last year and this saved a lot of time as well as made our project this year better than last year in my mind.

Adobe Photoshop:-

  This tool was used in the production of our Poster and Magazine front cover. Aran and I worked on the poster and Muhammed worked on the poster as he had this software in his house. Nonne of hus had very much past experience with this software so Aran and I spent a day getting used to all of its features which there were a lot of. I felt that this software was overcomplicated and very time consuming to get my head around. But as soon as we got grips with it, I felt that you could accomplish a lot from it and thus we produced two different pieces of text from this.

   The most important thing we had to deal  with was the cropping phase along with the text. Thanks to a number of forums and YouTube tutorials, we had the knowledge to get it done. Despite this, the production of the magazine cover and poster took as long as the editing phase of the trailer but I felt this was mainly due to our inexperience with the software.

   Overall I felt that this was a very handy piece of software as soon as we got grips with the way it works. I felt that if I were to produce a piece of text using Photoshop now with my experience, it won't take as long as it did to produce our poster and magazine front cover.

                                    

Here is a screenshot of the software that we had used for the poster and magazine front cover. This was a screenshot taken when we were trying to get used to the software. As you can see, there are many features that we had to get used to and thus we were trying each one out individually and now I can safely say that we have become very experienced in regards to this software.

Keyboard (Soundtrack):-

   

    We used a Yamaha keyboard in the production for our sound. Our friend and composer James Richardson said this was used because of its simplicity and how easy it was to transfer the sound from his keyboard to his PC. This again made us very time efficient as we hired someone with the expertise and knowledge that we required to produce the sound. This was only the initial part of our sound production. James stated and showed how we could add additional instruments through this electric keyboard whereby he added strings and mixed it all together. Once this was done, we simply added it to our trailer and worked around it during out editing phase and alongside our storyboard, we had a clear idea of what needed to be done.

                              

Here is a screenshot of the exact piano/keyboard that was used by James Richardson. As you can see there was a lot of features consisting of a lot of instruments which we exploited which the help of James.

Social Networking:-

We used a wide range of social networking platforms throughout the duration of our course. We used YouTube the most in the research and planning stage when researching other trailers as well as getting help through tutorials of Photoshop. Furthermore this was the website where we uploaded all of our videos including the trailer. It was very helpful to our success as we used it constantly but mainly helped us gain sufficient knowledge which gave us the confidence to experiment. We also used Dailymotion which is similar yo YouTube but not as good. 

   We used Gmail to transfer pieces of unfinished work for one another to do at home. This was helpful as everyone contributed and made this project a real team effort. Furthermore, all of us gained knowledge in all fields thanks to Gmail. For example, the questionnaire results were very time consuming to produce and so we all done a third and finished it in one day which would have been much quicker than any one of us doing it together.

    We also used primary social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to promote our trailer and get a wider range of audience feedback of our drafts instead of just our friends. We also used this to gain interest of our trailer through crating hashtags which we incorporated at the end of out trailer as well and thus made the most out of these social networking platforms.

    Finally, we used blogger to bring everything together through the creation of our posts. As all three of us had blogger, we could upload something for the other person to see as everyone had experience with this site thanks to last year.

   Overall, I feel that the success of our trailer depended on the fact that we used a wide range of social media platforms. Not only did it give us information but it gave our audience information about our trailer.